If you are not familiar with Lissa and her wonderful work, get over to her blog and get to know this visionary who is working to inspire change in the modern healthcare industry. She is encouraging patients and health-care providers to change how they think about disease and to get honest about the real effects of silent killers such as stress, doing the work with hate, loneliness, fear, pessimism, depression, and anxiety.

Reading through the book and especially Lissa’s self-diagnosis, prescriptions, and healing, made me think about my own situation. I was in Albuquerque, NM studying Ayurveda with Dr Lad, working on my book, and brainstorming a new project with Banyan Botanicals. Somehow I managed to stuff my daily schedule into a tough sausage and made myself feel stressed and rushed. A result was tired eyes, slight puffiness, cravings for heavier foods (avocados, nuts, and cookies) and a lack of inspiration.

Usually I would look at my diet trying to find food that might be responsible for my less than ideal state. Dairy, gluten, eggs, grains, which one should be banned now? The only things was that I had times in my life when there were no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, no legumes, nothing besides lean protein, veggies and fruits and I would still suffer from digestive discomfort, burning eyes, and water retention.

My Best Prescription:

This time Lissa’s book helped look at a bigger picture. I got honest with myself and asked my body what was it that I was doing so wrong?

My body whispered a prescription for improving my well-being:

I needed to chill out, to play and be outside instead of sitting in front of the computer for hours, to hug and spend time with people not just research papers, to be more patient with deadlines, and to relax more.

Your body can give you your prescription, too, if you ask and listen. Lissa’s book Mind Over Matter will guide you through the process step by step.

Why You Need To Write Your Own Prescription

We are brought up in a society where doctors are supposed to carry the responsibility of creating and maintaining a healthy society. They are supposed to know what it takes to keep us healthy and well.

It might seem like a tempting solution to hand over the reigns of your health to someone who has more knowledge and who does it for a living. Taking responsibility of your own health is quite a load to carry. It means more decisions, more thinking for yourself, more listening to your body. Who wants that when you can just go to the doctor and get your solution, even though temporary and with a lot of side-effects, within minutes.

Taking responsibility starts by getting honest about what brought you to where you are now.

What in your life is creating so much negativity that it is making you sick, tired, and depressed?

What habits are ruining your health?

What relationships are sucking your life energy?

It is a matter of stepping back and instead of looking for a pill, a supplement, or an herb to make you feel better, figuring out the root cause.

Taking a Leap Of Faith

Most of the time taking a leap and trusting your body is super scary.

Your body might tell you that your boring soul-drenching work is to blame for your ill-health, or that living in a drama-filled relationship is making you overeat and messing with your hormones, or maybe spending too much time on a treadmill making you feel inflamed and puffy…

Deep down you will know that you need to free your life from things and people who pull your health down. But damn it can be hard to go against the flow and to change a career, to break up, to feel good about doing less, to cut strings with an old friend… What if life falls apart?

Well, it might. Or it might get better.

Lissa’s book is for the growing tribe of those who are not afraid to take the responsibility of their own health and take a leap of faith. People who are ready to explore self-trust and body intuition. What if it takes you wonderful, beautiful, happy, places?

It surely feels good to me! After a week of trusting my body and relaxing more, doing less, and spending more time with my girlfriends I feel a lot happier, more in-tune and healthier. I am also getting a lot more compliments:) I feel that getting honest about what made me feel less than great, made me remember my priorities and set them straight.

Your turn: What makes you feel less than ideal? What would your body ask for, if you asked?